Surrendering Wednesday
(La Remise Mercredi)
A middle-aged staff member of Japan Coast Guard stationed at Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture, has come to confess that he released over the Internet the controversial video, showing illegal and violent actions of the Chinese fishing boat around the Senkaku Islands, on his own responsibility.
SECTION I: Japan, Russia, The United States
The Japanese-Russo War (1904-1905) was the second most significant event in the 20th century of human history, since the Empire of Japan won the major battles on the land and in the sea against the Russian Empire.
(The first most significant event in the 20th century of human history is the use of nuclear [atomic] bombs by the U.S. on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as you know.)
As a Japanese, I am always, however, amazed at the Siberian Railroad whenever I watch the world map.
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The main route of the Trans-Siberian originates in St. Petersburg at Moskovsky Vokzal, runs through Moscow, Chelyabinsk, Omsk, Novosibirsk, Irkutsk, Ulan-Ude, Chita and Khabarovsk to Vladivostok via southern Siberia and was built from 1891 to 1916 under the supervision of government ministers of Russia who were personally appointed by the Tsar Alexander III and by his son, Tsar Nicholas II.
The additional Chinese Eastern Railway was constructed as the Russo-Chinese part of the Trans-Siberian Railway, connecting Russia with China and providing a shorter route to Vladivostok and it was operated by a Russian staff and administration based in Harbin.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Siberian_Railway
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Specifically, the line was provisionally completed in 1901 except a segment around Lake Baikal. It was wholly put into service in September 1904 during the Japanese-Russo War.
It is 7,416 km from Chelyabinsk to Vladivostok. In a wider range, it is 9.297 km from Moscow to Vladivostok.
In Japan, the major longest link of railroads on Japan proper (consisting of four major islands) is just 3,374 km from Wakkanai (Hokkaido) to Kagoshima (Kyusyu) even today.
Yet, the amount of railroad materials for the Siberian Railroad is enormous, especially taking into the era of construction, namely around 1900. Production capability of iron by the Russian Empire at the time must have surely far surpassed the Empire of Japan's. But, you cannot stop at railway construction; you need excellent railroad technology to make reasonable use of the line running on the frozen ground of Siberia.
So, the Russian Empire introduced American technology into the Siberian Railroad in addition to receiving funds from France.
The Imperial Army of Japan won the Battle of Mukden (Ho-ten-kaisen in Japanese) in March 1905; the Imperial Navy of Japan won the Battle of Tsushima (Nihon-kai-kaisen in Japanese) in May 1905.
The world got shocked at these news reports from the Far East. Asians, including Turks, Iranians, Arabs, Indians, and Chinese, got shocked at these news reports from the Far East, since a rising Asian country defeated a European major country in all-out modern warfare. A myth that only Christian Europeans/Americans were blessed with modern talent and power was broken. A myth "white" elites had indoctrinated into Asians and Africans for centuries that only Christian Europeans/Americans were blessed with modern talent and power was broken. So, the world got shocked at these news reports from the Far East in 1905.
This shock invoked a drastic paradigm change in minds of Asians, which has eventually led to the rise of China, India, and other G20 non-European/American nations of today.
But, the Russian Empire could still leverage the Siberian Railroad, since it was just completed. After the two fatal losses in Manchuria and the Sea of Japan, Moscow resumed transportation of a huge number of troops, as if having learnt no lessons. In several months, the Russian Empire completed one million troop deployment in north Manchuria.
On the other hand, though the Empire of Japan defeated 370,000 Russian troops in Mukden as well as 50,000 in Port Arthur and 38 Russian naval ships in the Sea of Japan, the Imperial Government depleted war funds and power. It could not be engaged in another major battle against Russian army intensified with one million strong forces, without facing state bankruptcy.
Yet, Russian generals were not in the mood of expecting an easy win; they had no confidence that a possible victory in Manchuria would surely lead to successful occupation of the Korean Peninsula and other border areas inside China and the Empire of Japan without effective fleets in the Far East. So, Moscow accepted U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt as an intermediary, since Tokyo also expected the American Government to act as intermediary.
Accordingly, the Treaty of Portsmouth was concluded in September 1905. The war was over. The victory of the Empire of Japan was fixed in history.
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Negotiations lasted through August. Prior to the beginning of negotiations, the Japanese had allegedly made the Taft-Katsura Agreement with the United States in July 1905, agreeing to Japanese control in Korea in return for American dominance in the Philippines. Also, the Japanese agreed with Britain to extend the Anglo-Japanese treaty to cover all of Eastern Asia, in return for Britain also agreeing to Japanese control over Korea.
Despite Japan's demands for the entirety of Sakhalin and a war indemnity, and Russia's outright refusal, peace was attained through the actions of Roosevelt. Russia, under the guidance of Witte, had been unwilling to give concessions in the name of peace and took advantage of Japan's need to end the war and thus Japan's willingness to compromise.[4] Roosevelt first proposed that a neutral committee propose concessions that Russia would cede to Japan, but after the idea's rejection, Roosevelt convinced Japan to lay down its demand for an indemnity and accept the southern half of Sakhalin rather than the island as a whole.
The treaty confirmed Japan's emergence as the pre-eminent power in East Asia, and forced Russia to abandon its expansionist policies there, but it was not well received by the Japanese public.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Portsmouth
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Incidentally, of course, the whole Kurile Islands had nothing to do with this great war. They belonged to the Empire of Japan always.
Yet, a lesson we have to learn is grave. It is so, since one million and more Russian soldiers came from Europe to Manchuria so swiftly through the Siberian Railroad built and operated with help from America, though only America could diplomatically put an end to the Japanese-Russo War in 1905.
Note 1: The then U.S. king of railroad Edward Henry Harriman provided $5 million for Tokyo to finance the Japanese-Russo War; he came to Japan in 1905, in order to join management of the South Manchuria Railway the Empire of Japan established with tracks transferred by the Russian Empire after the War, though he could not eventually due to a strong opposition from a Japanese politician who concluded the Treaty of Portsmouth on behalf of the Imperial Government.
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If you invent a bow and arrow, your ethical level must be enhanced a step higher.
If you invent a gun, your ethical level must be enhanced a step higher.
If you invent a missile, your ethical level must be enhanced a step higher.
If you invent a nuclear weapon, your ethical level must be enhanced a quantum step higher.
Finally, if you invent the Internet, your ethical level must be enhanced a step higher.
Of course, as they invented a superb Japanese sword, samurai's ethical level was enhanced a step higher 1000 years ago.
Anyway, around 1995, when I found that Windows 95 had an Internet browser and the TCP/IP communications function embedded, I realized that the Internet could be a very dangerous tool for bad guys, since they can disseminate publicly any secrets without knowing computer/tele-communications technologies.
Though computers (namely, mainframes) were already powerful tools in the 1987 Black Monday on Wall Street, a PC has became a more powerful tool for personal investors since 1995.
Mr. Bil Gates wrote a book about future around that time, however, without mentioning dangerous aspects of advanced computer technologies.
So, I have never trusted this technology, since I have never trusted software engineers who write codes of computer software or design electronic circuits for computer hardware.
But today, you know, a bad and mad scientist can embed a million poisonous viruses or bactria in a handful of soil. At any time, mankind can face a danger of extinction as species.
Now, it is time to check the Bible for your sake.
Mat 11:8 But what went ye out for to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? behold, they that wear soft clothing are in kings' houses.
Mat 11:9 But what went ye out for to see? A prophet? yea, I say unto you, and more than a prophet.
Mat 11:10 For this is he, of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee.